CLEARFIELD – Mike McGough, district manager for First Media Radio in State College, confirmed that the sale of Clearfield-based WCPA-AM and WQYX-FM was finalized on Monday.
GantDaily originally reported on this story in October, when paperwork for the sale had been filed with the Federal Communications Commission. GantDaily has been communicating throughout the week with McGough to learn more about the future direction of the stations.
North Carolina-based First Media LLC is the reported buyer of the Clearfield-based WCPA-WQYX. First Media owns 23 other stations, including Q102 in DuBois and 3WZ in State College.
The reported price of the station was $750,000, payable in cash at closing, with $50,000 set aside in escrow.
McGough said that no format change is in store for the stations, as both are very popular with Clearfield County listeners.
First Media owns and operates 27 broadcasting stations in the Mid-Atlantic. In Clearfield County, WCPA and WQYX join WOWQ, DuBois, in the First Media family. The company also operates 95.3/3WZ radio in State College, WLAK-FM in Huntingdon, and WMRF-FM and WIEZ-AM in Lewistown.
“For the past 15 years or so, the programming on WQYX has all come from Dallas, Texas, and we intend to produce WQYX locally instead,” said McGough.
“WCPA will continue to be very focused on the Clearfield-Curwensville area with a solid local news effort, local sports and community events. Most of WCPA’s music programming for the past decade has all come from a network in Los Angeles, and we’ll be bringing that back home as well.
“So the direction we’re taking is toward more local content, not less,” said McGough, who added that the stations include five locations in Clearfield County. “And we’ll be using them all.”
No indication was given as to whether the stations’ current base of operations in Clearfield would be moved.